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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27135805">Recurring Decimal</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/redroseinsanity/pseuds/redroseinsanity'>redroseinsanity</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hold your breath, count to ten [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Mild Gore</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:22:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,309</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27135805</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/redroseinsanity/pseuds/redroseinsanity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The presence of Kuroo is almost more stifling, harder to ignore than his absence... Kenma can neither breathe nor ignore it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hold your breath, count to ten [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980692</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Haikyuu Horror Week</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Recurring Decimal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Haikyuu Horror Week 2020!</p>
<p>This is my first time writing horror so I’m excited but also apologetic if this is not on par with your expectations. In that vein, I’m not sure if I’m tagging this as well as I should be, so if at any point you feel like you want to nope out, please do!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Recurring Decimal: Recurring decimal is also known as repeating decimal. In a decimal, a digit or a sequence of digits in the decimal part keeps repeating itself infinitely. Such decimals are called non-terminating repeating decimals or recurring decimals.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>Day 5:</strong>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>a monster who knows your thoughts / he’s easily replaced / <strike>what you don’t understand /</strike></strong>
  <strike>
    <strong>the last ones standing</strong>
  </strike>
  <strong> / next in line / an uncontainable desire</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Kuroo's already up when Kenma shuffles in, the late morning light streaming in with overly bright cheeriness that makes Kenma wince minutely and squint a little. </p>
<p>Kuroo glances up with a grin and hits a button on a complicated remote, and with a whisper of synthetic cloth, the day curtains slowly close. Now that the glare of the sun has been filtered into a muted yellow glow, Kenma plops into his chair with a sigh and reaches for the french toast that's still warm. </p>
<p>Kuroo must have done a fresh batch when he heard Kenma get up, because the french toast is still crispy at first bite and fluffy on the inside, gently sweet and it makes Kenma hum happily before reaching for a sleek grey device and focusing on it. </p>
<p>"Morning, kitten," Kuroo says at last, eyes bemused and fond as he flicks through what must be the news on his own device. </p>
<p>"Morning," Kenma murmurs, then hits pause and glances up, golden eyes carefully neutral, "What did you do before I woke up?"</p>
<p>"Oh, I only cleaned the entire house like, three times," Kuroo drawls, his expression mischievous and smile full of teasing laughter that's barely contained. </p>
<p>"We have two cleaning bots," Kenma points out dryly, flicking a glance at the robots in question, dome shaped heads shiny and orange lights indicating that they're currently in hibernation mode. </p>
<p>"Ah, so we do," Kuroo concedes lightly, "I did all the laundry then." </p>
<p>"Our laundry system is automatic," Kenma purses his lips to prevent a small smile from escaping, "We just throw the clothes in and they get washed, dried and pressed before coming out folded or hung up?"</p>
<p>"Right, that," Kuroo's grinning now, making no effort to hide it, "I… waited for you to wake up?"</p>
<p>Kenma snorts, he can't help it. He's completely relaxed now, slouched down to huddle into his over-sized sweater, it's crimson and technically Kuroo's but he got to it first so he's going to hang on to it for as long as he can. </p>
<p>"Try again," He chuckles, eyes soft as he looks at Kuroo who's lazily draped over the couch, chin propped on his hands over the back of the sofa to face Kenma.</p>
<p>With a sigh, Kuroo stands and pads to the window where he creates a small gap in the curtains to peer outside. The thin crack of light that comes in is intermittently broken off as hoover cars and space shuttle buses hurtle past their window on the 372th floor. </p>
<p>They'd chosen this place because it was on the quieter side of the city, but since the latest intergalactic portal had been built nearby, the traffic had only gotten heavier. Kenma still can't get used to the whine of spacecraft engines outside at all hours of the night, and the colourful blur of metallic bodies that rush past in the day. </p>
<p>"I was just looking outside," Kuroo's voice is quiet now, a certain wistfulness in it that makes Kenma stiffen and turn to blink at the other man's profile. </p>
<p>The light that glances off the space crafts outside throws itself in shades of faded red and purples onto Kuroo's face as he watches them zoom past. </p>
<p>Holding his breath, Kenma lets his gaze trip over that immaculate jawline, those soft lips, the nose that he loves to run a finger over and those sad eyes. </p>
<p>"Do you want to go outside?" He inquires mildly, but his hands have closed into fists underneath the sleeves of his sweater, his heart pounding an uneven rhythm that makes him feel slightly lightheaded. </p>
<p>Kuroo turns, but the curtains don't fall completely shut and his figure ends up backlit. He's just a silhouette, just a familiar figure that looks like Kenma's best friend, just the same tall frame and rumpled hair. </p>
<p>But his face is shadowed, expression hidden when he speaks. </p>
<p>"Not if you don't want me to," Kuroo's voice is sad but resigned and Kenma hates it. It digs claws into his stomach and screams that this is wrong, this is not what Kuroo's voice is like. </p>
<p>"Wrong answer," Kenma says quietly and steadily, "No second tries this time." </p>
<p>Kuroo is looking up in horror, hands reaching for Kenma but the code has already been keyed in on Kenma's device. </p>
<p>A code that makes Kuroo stumble to the floor, knees hitting the polished wooden surface hard enough to crack, fingers desperately stretching but not enough to close the distance. Never enough to close the distance. </p>
<p>Kenma watches, small face unchanging, as Kuroo crumples, folding in on himself as though he's being deflated like a balloon. His skin sags as his flesh gets sucked into thin air, his eyes bugging out as his face hollows and his cheeks turn concave. </p>
<p>"Ke-enmaa," The thing that looks like Kuroo warbles, a gurgle before his tongue gets swallowed and then his skin begins folding in on itself, as though he's being pulled into a vacuum layer by layer. </p>
<p>Until there's a small, wet pop and there's nothing left of the man who had been there. Face impassive, Kenma turns on his heel and heads down a flight of stairs, enters another code into the keypad at a heavy steel door and lets himself into a cool room with high ceilings. </p>
<p>As the door slams shut behind him, he hesitates, a brief inhale before he walks tentatively over to a pod. </p>
<p>It's overflowing with wiring and tubes, but the cover is clear glass so that Kenma can look directly in to see the familiar face of his best friend. </p>
<p>Skin hued a greyish pallor but otherwise flawless, Kuroo Tetsurou looks like he's sleeping were it not for the fact that his chest does not rise and fall. </p>
<p>"They're all too obedient," Kenma murmurs, a finger tracing the glass as though he can caress the peaceful face beneath it, "They want the same things as you but they never fight me about it the way you do. They just try to please me all the time, it's too boring."</p>
<p>The control fractures as Kenma pulls in a shuddering breath, blinks wet lashes and leans his head against the pod. </p>
<p>"But if they go out they'll die, that's how- That's what will- You went and you-" Another choked breath, a laboured sound. This is no time-healed wound, this is fresh and raw, "Tell me what to do, Tetsurou, come back and tell me what to do."</p>
<p>There are teardrops blurring the pod surface and teardrops on Kuroo's sweater but Kenma raises a face that is wiped dry, although his eyes hold unimaginable pain. A pain that tells of an existence so distraught, so wretched that there's hardly much of the man left in there at all. </p>
<p>"I'm being silly, aren't I?" He asks the prone form of Tetsurou, a derisive smile on his lips, "I want them to be more like you and less like you all at the same time. It's too much."</p>
<p>He glanced down the rest of the room, at the multiple cylindrical tanks, each with a floating man, all at different levels of development. Some are still tiny, like a baby, others are teenaged-sized, all are suspended in clear liquid. And all look like one person. </p>
<p>The blue glow from the tanks tinge Kenma's face as he strokes Tetsurou's pod one more time. </p>
<p>"It's okay, I have plenty of tries to get it right," His eyes are affectionate, desperate, "To get <em>you</em> right."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I should also be posting concurrently on <a href="https://redroseinsanity.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a> as well. Come say hi!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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